Zeromancer- Bye-Bye Borderline

Written by David Schock

Artist: Zeromancer

CD Title: Bye-Bye Borderline

Label: Trisol Music Group

Genre: Industrial Rock

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After a three year hiatus from Norwegian's Zeromancer we finally get the follow-up to 2010's excellent Death to Romance album in Bye-Bye Borderline. I've been a fan of Zeromancer for many years now but this new album left me a little unsatisfied. Now, my favorite albums are still Clone your Lover, Eurotrash and Death to Romance and the songs that I have always enjoyed most from Zeromancer are the ones that had a punchy "industrial rock" aspect to them. But on Zeromancer's 6th full length album, Alex Møklebust (vocals), Kim Ljung (bass guitar/backup vocals), Dan Heide ( guitar),Noralf Ronthi (drums) and Lorry Kristiansen (programming) seem to have gone more to the "Industrial pop" or "alternative rock" formula (much like Apoptygma Berzerk has over the past few albums) rather than looking for the club stompers that we have come to expect from them like "Clone your Lover", "Dr. Online", and " It sounds like Love". At times I had to remind myself that I wasn't listening to New Order, The Cure, IAMX or even Depeche Mode in certain parts. One of the things holding Zeromancer back from jumping to the top of the "industrial rock" heap is that on nearly every album you'll find 2-3 tracks where the lyrics just get bogged down or even ridiculous at points and "Bye-Bye Borderline" is no exception with the back half of the album coming across to be pretty weak. Oh sure, it does have a few "heavy" songs such as, "Bye-Bye Borderline", "Auf Wiedersehen Boy" and " Lace And Armour," but there was just too much watering down of the "classic" Zeromancer sound for me to just love this album after just 3 spins through. Maybe after a few more rotations in the CD player I will come around to this album but right now, I would score it a 3 out of 5, let's just hope we don't have to wait another three years for the next full-length from them.